austinbar.org JUNE 2021 | VOLUME 30, NUMBER 5
Tributes to Roy Minton and Lloyd Lochridge Two Legal Legends Lost
T
he Austin legal community lost two legends in recent months. Roy Q. Minton passed away on March 25, 2021 at the age of 89. Lloyd P. Lochridge, Jr. followed on April 13, 2021 at the age of 103. Their legacies will live forever and they will be greatly missed.
ROY MINTON Sam Bassett of Minton, Bassett, Flores & Carsey had this to say about his mentor and friend, Roy Minton: I was an outsider to the Red Brick House when Roy asked me to join in late 2000. Soon thereafter, I was trying a murder case in Georgetown with Roy and realized I had been invited to work with one of the very best courtroom advocates. We succeeded in getting a lesser manslaughter verdict much to the chagrin of John Bradley, who personally tried the case. That is one of many predictable stories you might
hear from many lawyers who worked with him over the years. He was awesome to watch preparing for trial as much as performing at trial. He truly represented a high-profile clientele that included Frank Erwin, Billy Clayton, Jim Mattox, Kino Flores, Colton Pitonyak, Jeff Wentworth, Tom Craddick, Houston Lighting & Power, Jim Bob Moffett, and so many others.
Some of the less publicized qualities of Roy Q. Minton: • He detested profanity LEFT: Roy Minton. RIGHT: Lloyd Lochridge. (Photos courtesy of the State Bar of Texas Archives.) (though he threw in an occasional “dammit”); • He was very liberal politto walk her to her car when difficult to get in Austin; ically. He didn’t hesitate to she came by the office; • He adored his pets, one tell the many Republicans • He doted over his five time stopping a meeting he represented (often saychildren and loved working with a high-profile client ing, “You need to know, I’m with his sons in the at 5 p.m. because Barbara a LIBERAL Democrat!); practice; was out of town and he had • He adored his wife Barba• He was not a fan of to feed the dog; ra—always stopping whatorganized religion but was • He loved to fly. A former ever meeting or phone call a “spiritualist”—often military pilot, he enjoyed flytalking to me about moing his twin engine Baron; [Roy Minton] had a great sense of humor. ments when “the invisi• He had a great sense of bles” gave him a helping humor. Sometimes, in the Sometimes, in the middle of trial, he’d hand in and out of the middle of trial, he’d look look at my worried face and say “You just courtroom; at my worried face and say • He set fees too low. In “You just want to try the want to try the EASY ones?” his later years of practice, EASY ones?”; and he would joke, “There • I observed him to be kind is a point in your career and warm hearted, very where your rate should go accepting of people from DOWN!”; all walks of life, despite his • He and Charlie Burton reputation as a ruthless would sleep on courthouse litigator/defender. benches to hustle court For me, his death is a moment appointments in the 60s to pause and be grateful to when a criminal case was continued on page 8
